‘I like my myths messy’: Phoenicia Rogerson on Hercules, Ryan Gosling and a complicated legend

A UK author has taken a quest into one of ancient mythology’s biggest legends, uncovering “the good, the bad and the weird” that makes up the man she has dubbed “Herc”.

He’s one of the biggest names in ancient mythology – even Disney took him on. Now the story of Hercules is being retold by PHOENICIA ROGERSON. The UK author, who “likes my myths messy” joined the Sunday Book Club for a Q&A session.

Circe, The Song of Achilles, Hadestown … Why do you think people are flocking to mythological retellings lately?

I’m probably biased because I’ve been interested in Greek mythology for so long, but I don’t think it’s ever really gone out of style – this is just a new flavour! What I really love about the retellings we’re seeing at the moment is the tendency to look at the heroes, gods, and monsters as people who have to make difficult decisions in a complicated world rather than taking for granted who’s good and who’s bad. It brings a lot of space to interpret the myths in new ways and play with how we’re understanding them.

Where did the myth of Hercules originate?

There’s a lot of different opinions about this one! My personal inclination is to say that Herc was originally a collection of different characters, who gradually melded into one, almost like Prince Charming’s reappearance in fairy tales. Broadly, though, he’s been appearing in sources for as long as we’ve had them.

What’s one thing you wish people knew about Hercules?

How complicated his character is, for sure. He’s a lot of different things to different people in the stories, and I think we do a real disservice to them if we ignore all that nuance and just call him a hero. He did so much more than the labours, from the good, to the bad, to the weird, and I’d love for people to know more about that, rather than “man kills monster, again”.

Herc by Phoenicia Rogerson for Sunday Book Club

Heracles or Hercules? Which is correct?

I’m going to be unhelpful here and say both, though neither works too. In the broadest strokes, Heracles is the Greek name for him, and Hercules is the Roman, but we’re talking about an ancient name here. It’s coming from different languages and, for the Greek, a different alphabet. Anything we call him is a work of translation and if that can ever be truly faithful to the original – if there even is a single “original” version – is a bigger philosophical question. Out of all the mythological characters, Herc (see how I cheat there!) is unique for his Roman name being so much more well-known than the Greek; Hercules is certainly what I grew up calling him. Though, to add fuel to the fire, I believe the Etruscans called him Hercle, which is my favourite of the lot!

Your book, Herc, tells the story of Hercules through the voices of all the people around him, his mother, his wife, his enemies etc. Which character was your favourite to write about? Who surprised you?

I write all my characters under the assumption that everyone’s actions are reasonable to themselves, so Eurystheus, who sets the labours of Hercules, required some mental gymnastics, but once I had that, he was an absolute blast to write. He mostly wants to get on with his mortal life, but he’s stuck with Herc doing his heroics all over the place. It’s such a fun foil to the usual ideas about how we react to heroes. On the more serious end, Megara surprised me with how strongly her voice came out, like she was ready to finally tell it her way.

Herc author Phoenicia Rogerson.

What inspired you to write Herc?

I’ve wanted to read this book for a really, really long time. For years, all I could find were either more academic compilations of Greek myths, or they glossed over a lot of what was going on in order to paint a cleaner picture of what was going on. I like the myths messy!

Was Hercules the hero? Or the villain?

This very much depends who you ask. His life is much more than one conflict, so he switches back and forth, but overall, I try to leave it for the reader to make up their mind about him!

What is the enduring appeal of Hercules?

You never know what’s going to happen with Herc, everything he does is turned up to eleven. He’s the epitome of the big hero man – he’s strong, he’s famous, his father is the king of the gods. Not only is all of this positive balanced out by incredible life-ruining flaws – his temper, his impulse control, his strength (again) – but a lot of the bad comes from the same place as the good. Everything is a blessing and a curse.

A scene from 1997 animated cartoon film Hercules.

What is your favourite adaptation of Hercules in popular culture?

My brother and I named not one, but two cats after Disney’s Hercules (Pegasus and Hercules-Kipper), so I’ll always have a huge soft spot for it, even if I did feel very betrayed when I found out Pegasus wasn’t actually Herc’s horse in the myths.

Pick a Hercules; the Disney cartoon, Ryan Gosling as Young Hercules, Kevin Sorbo as 90s Hercules or Brett Goldstein as Marvel Hercules.

What if we put all of them together on a sports team? We could call them The Fighting Hercs. I’d buy merch. (Though I did just watch the Barbie movie, so now I’m imagining Ryan Gosling’s Young Hercules as a Ken and I can’t unthink it …)

Herc by Phoenicia Rogerson is out now, published by HQ Fiction. Come and discuss your fave complex characters (and Ryan Gosling) at the Sunday Book Club group on Facebook.

And try our Book Of The Month, Cain’s Jawbone – you get 33 per cent off the RRP with the code JAWBONE at Booktopia.

Originally published as ‘I like my myths messy’: Phoenicia Rogerson on Hercules, Ryan Gosling and a complicated legend